Fruit Fly in My Starter!!!

Argh!! It's just one of the little buggers, but I know they're covered in acetobacter. It's a 3qt starter from a smack pack...so it's not like the wort is overwhelmed with cells (as it might be in a smaller starter).

Would you start over?

If you do indeed have an acetobacter infection in your starter, I would think that you would also see the associated film on the top. On the other hand if you have other yeast readily available I'd probably just do that to be safe. I had an acetobacter infection once and fortunately it was a cider so I just kept it around for cooking. Definitely wouldn't want to risk that happening to 5g of beer, though.

Dump it. It is not worth the risk.

I'd accept a fruit fly in my beer - but wouldn't repitch from the cake. I would dump the starter and begin again.

GT

I've had that issue before. My dog knows how to open the screen door, but not close it, so I'll get little gnats in the kitchen, and they can crawl under the foil wrapped around top of the flask. It's happened twice and I've dumped the yeast both times, not worth the risk.

I actually started a similar thread the first time, and someone presented a good rhetorical question. "Are you sure the fly was sanitized when it went in? If not I wouldn't pitch it."

whatsleftofyou said:

If you do indeed have an acetobacter infection in your starter, I would think that you would also see the associated film on the top. On the other hand if you have other yeast readily available I'd probably just do that to be safe. I had an acetobacter infection once and fortunately it was a cider so I just kept it around for cooking. Definitely wouldn't want to risk that happening to 5g of beer, though.

Click to expand...

Makes me wonder what beer vinegar could be used for. Maybe a nice vinaigrette?

Yeah...I dumped and bought a couple of smack packs. Better safe than vinegary.